Man sentenced in child sex case blames supplements

Richard Dinizo was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He told young victims to wear a mask and convinced them they were playing a 'tasting game'.(Photo: (Photo11: Provided to The Westchester County, N.Y., Journal News))

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Richard Dinizo was sentenced to 25 years in prison

He told young victims to wear a mask and convinced them they were playing a 'tasting game'

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A former youth basketball coach who tricked three elementary school-age girls into performing sex acts — blaming his behavior in part on Chinese nutritional supplements — was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison.

"Whatever you used to be prior to this day you are no longer," Cacace said. "Now you are just a sex offender."

Prosecutors said that Dinizo, who coached girls basketball for nearly two decades, convinced the girls to perform sex acts for more than two years, at times filming them with multiple cameras. Dinizo met some of them through his daughter, including at his young daughter's birthday party.

None of the victims — two 7-year-olds and a 10-year-old — were players that Dinizo coached. Officials said he convinced the girls they were playing a "tasting game" at his home, having them wear a mask that covered their eyes and prevented them from being aware of the sex acts.

Dinizo pleaded guilty to three counts of predatory sexual assault of a child in December.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Dinizo's acts went "way beyond the bounds" of even the acts of ordinary sex offenders they come across, and that his explanations for his crimes — libido driven by the herbal supplement and depression — were grossly inadequate.

But Joseph Abinanti, Dinizo's lawyer, called Dinizo's behavior an "aberration."

"I'm still puzzled by this short period of bizarre behavior," Abinanti said, before conceding that Dinizo would likely never be a free man again. "Some demon must have gotten into his brain or his world."

Dinizo still faces a federal child pornography case, which is pending. Prosecutors said that Dinizo's family, including his daughter and former wife, no longer speak to him.

"He's going to spend the rest of his life in jail," Abinanti said. "There's no question about it."

PHOTOS: Notorious Teacher Sex Scandals

The Stafford County Sheriff's Office said 27-year-old Erica Lynne Mesa, a teacher and coach at Colonial Forge High School, has been charged with 3 Counts of Custodian Indecent Liberties and 3 Counts of Solicitation of a Minor Using a Computer Device. (Photo: Stafford County Sheriff's Office)

Kathryn Ronk, 29, of Birmingham turned herself in to Madison Heights, Mich., police and was charged with five counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to police. Each charge is punishable by as much as a life sentence in prison. (Photo: Detroit Free Press)

Andrea Cardosa, 40, a Southern California school administrator who quit her job after a former student aired sexual abuse allegations on a YouTube video, has been charged with sexually abusing two girls. (Photo: Riverside County Sheriff's Department)

Police in Indiana have arrested a high school cheerleading coach, Megan Crafton, who allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student. Crafton, who turned herself in to police on June 15, 2012, plead not guilty to seducing a minor. Court records show the part-time assistant cheerleading coach at Shelbyville High School previously admitted to performing sex acts on the teen in her car. The student is reportedly a member of Shelbyville's basketball team. (Photo: WISH)

Brittni Colleps, a 28-year-old teacher, wife and mother of three, was convicted on 16 counts of having improper relationships with students in August and is currently serving a five-year jail term. Authorities say the 28-year-old former Kennedale High School English teacher had sex with the students at her Arlington home over a period of two months. (Photo: KENS)

A high school teacher in Iowa, Ashley Anderson, has been charged with having inappropriate sexual relationships with four male students. The 24-year-old former Aplington-Parkersburg High School math teacher is charged with four counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation announced on Friday. (Photo: KENS)

Gabriela Compton: Phoenix police arrested 20-year-old middle school teacher's aide Gabriela Compton in March 2011 on suspicion of having sexual contact with two students. Police say Compton allegedly sent a photo of her breasts to some male students at Western Valley Middle School. (Photo: Maricopa County Jail)

Gail Gagne: Gail Gagne, a 28-year-old Minnesota high school teacher and coach, was convicted of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct for having sex with a former student and football player in 2008. According to CBS affiliate WCCO, Gagne had been working in the weight room as a supervisor at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul when the two became acquainted. Gagne was 25 at the time; the student was 16. (Photo: Hennepin County Sheriff's Department)

Tiffany Mosson: Indiana teacher Tiffany Mosson was arrested in April 2011 after allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student. The 35-year-old English teacher at Covington Community High School was charged with child seduction. Police say Mosson admitted she had sex with the male student at her house several times. (Photo: CBS/WISH)

Heather Lasseigne Chiasson: Heather Lasseigne Chiasson, a teacher at South Lafourche High School in Louisiana, was accused in Jan. 2012 for having sexual relations with a 17-year-old student she taught in 2011. The 29-year-old was charged with prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and a student and was suspended from her job. (Photo: Personal Photo)

Kristin Leone: Kristin Leone was charged with sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of criminal sexual contact, luring and enticing a child, and two counts of official misconduct. (Photo: Clifton Police Department)

Kristin Leone: New Jersey high school teacher Kristin Leone was arrested in May 2012 for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student. Investigators determined the 26-year-old Clifton High School history teacher engaged in sexual conduct with the male student on at least two separate occasions. (Photo: CBS/WCBS)

Additional child sex abuse charges were filed on against Kathyrin Murray, 29, a west Houston middle school teacher who was already accused of having sex with a 15-year-old student last winter. Murray was removed from Memorial Middle School and let go from her position after the initial investigation. She was charged with two more counts of sexual abuse of a child and one count of improper relations on July 2. (Photo: KHOU)

Former Osceola County, Fla. teacher Kacy Wilson has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old student and sending pornographic photos to the teen, the Kissimmee Police Department reported on May 3, 2012. CBS affiliate WKMG reports that the 28-year-old was arrested in Salida, Colo. She was charged with one count of unlawful sexual activity with certain minors and one count of unlawful transmission of pornography by electronic device. (Photo: CBS/WKMG/Kissimmee Police Dept.)

Carole Ann Hope: Authorities say she was arrested on charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and lewd act on a minor. One of the warrants says Carole Ann Hope met the teen while teaching seventh-grade math at New Heights Middle School in Jefferson. (Photo: Darlington County Detention Center)

Stacy Schuler: The 33-year-old high school health and gym teacher from southwest Ohio was convicted of having sex with five students. Some of them were football players. According to The Middletown Journal newspaper, a former high school football player testified that he and a friend had sex with Schuler at her home. The student said he had sex with his teacher a total of seven times during five visits. (Photo: Warren County Jail)

Sheral Smith: Sheral Smith, a former Mississippi private school teacher, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old student. (Photo: Rankin County Sheriff's Dept)

Loni Folks: Loni Marie Folks, Missouri elementary school teacher, pleaded guilty in 2008 to having sex with a 16-year-old student. She was charged with sexual battery after she was accused of sleeping with a 16-year-old male foreign exchange student from Italy staying in the home of Folks and her husband. She was given a 12-year suspended sentence and required to register as a sex offender. (Photo: WKRG)

Tara Driscoll: The New York teacher was charged in August 2011 with having sex with an underage student at a Long Island motel. According to police, the victim's mother found out and contacted authorities. A board of education spokeswoman said Driscoll was removed from the classroom in May. (Photo: Nassau County Police Department)

Tericka Dye: Missouri woman Tericka Dye resigned from her job as a high school science teacher after students learned that she was once porn star Rikki Andersin and appeared in X-rated films. (Photo: CBS/KFVS)

Melissa Petro: The revelation occurred when the 30-year-old wrote an online article in The Huffington Post on Sept. 7 criticizing popular online classified Craigslist for removing its "adult services" section, which carried sex-related advertising, reports The New York Times. (Photo: Personal Photo)

Melissa Petro: Melissa Petro, a New York City elementary school teacher, has been reassigned after her school discovered she was a former prostitute. According to the New York Post, the tattooed sex worker taught art at Bronx elementary school PS 70 for three years and managed to keep her past life a secret from parents and faculty. (Photo: Personal Photo)

Lisa Glide: Soap opera actress turned high school drama teacher, Lisa Glide, was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to having sex with a high school student twice off campus. But the supposed 17-year-old victim says he pursued her. According to MyCentralJersey.com, at Glide's sentencing, the victim - now a college sophomore - sent a letter on her behalf claiming "Lisa Glide was not a sexual predator." (Photo: WCBS)

Heather Lynne Zeo: Heather Lynne Zeo, seen here arriving with her husband on July, 2009 for a hearing in district court in Lansdale, Pa., is charged with endangering the welfare of a child and four counts of corruption of minors. She has three children and maintains a website where she has published songs that teach Christian messages and also musical ways to learn math. (Photo: AP Photo/The Reporter)

Heather Lynne Zeo: North Penn School District high school math teacher Heather Lynne Zeo was suspended from her job for allegedly having sex with one of her students in the back seat of her family minivan and sending sexually explicit messages to another. (Photo: HeatherLynne.com)

Amy Victoria Beck: Amy Victoria Beck stunned officials when she walked into police headquarters in March 2010 and told detectives she had carried on a nine month affair with a 14-year-old former student. The 33-year-old former Burbank middle school teacher was sentenced to two years in a state prison. (Photo: CBS/KCAL)

Carrie McCandless: Carrie McCandless, a former Brighton Collegiate High School teacher and wife to the school principal, was accused of having sexual contact with a 17-year-old student while chaperoning a school camping trip. She turned herself in to authorities in Nov. 2006, as seen in this undated mug shot. (Photo: AP Photo/Jefferson County Jail)

Carrie McCandless: Carrie McCandless, shown in this June 2007 photo during her sentencing hearing at Fort Collins, Colo., was found guilty of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a high school student. The 29-year-old was sentenced to 45 days in jail, five years on probation and a four-year deferred sentence (Photo: AP Photo/Sherri Barber)

Amber Jennings: Amber Jennings, of Sturbridge, Mass., is shown at her arraignment Aug. 2004 in Dudley, Mass. The 30-year-old Shepherd Hill Regional High School teacher was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. She faced charges of inducing a minor under 18 "to have unlawful sexual intercourse" and sending him nude photos of herself. (Photo: AP Photo/The Telegram & Gazette)

Sandra Beth Geisel: Geisel, seen in this 2005 mug shot, made headlines again in 2006, but this time it was her bank president husband who was being accused of sexual misconduct. Geisel has since been released and made to register as a level one sex offender. (Photo: Colonie Police Department)

Sandra Beth Geisel: Sandra "Beth" Geisel walks past the media as she turns herself in on Aug. 2005 to police. Geisel, a former English teacher at an all-boys Catholic high school was charged with rape for allegedly having sex twice with a 16-year-old student, once in a press box above the school's football field. Some believe she was actually the victim. (Photo: AP Photo/Tom Killips)

Mary Kay Letourneau-Fauulau: After serving her sentence, Mary Kay Letourneau married her victim/lover, Vili Fualaau, and raised two children with him. Letourneau, now 47, and Fualaau, later poked fun at their situation by hosting a series of "Hot for Teacher" parties at a Seattle nightclub, according to CBS affiliate KVAL. (Photo: AP Photo/The Insider)

Mary Kay Letourneau-Fauulau: Mary Kay Letourneau had a baby with Vili Fualaau in July 1997 when he was 14-years-old. LeTourneau plead guilty to raping him on Aug. 1997 and served 7 1/2 years in prison. (Photo: AP Photo/The Seattle Times)

Mary Kay Letourneau-Fauulau: Former grade school teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau listens to testimony during a 1998 court hearing in Seattle. LeTourneau, then 35 and a married mother of four, was charged with child rape for her relationship with Vili Fualaau, who was in second grade when they met and only 12 when their sexual affair began. (Photo: AP Photo/Alan Berner)

In July 2006, Pamela Rogers was ordered by a Tenn. judge to seven years in jail for violating her probation on a sentence for having sex with a 13-year-old boy. At the hearing she said, "I am willing to do anything to rehabilitate myself." Yet in 2007, she received an extra two years for again sending nude photos to the boy. (Photo: AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Pamela Rogers Turner: Pamela Rogers just couldn't stay away from the 13-year-old boy she was accused of having sex with. After serving 9 months in jail, she was arrested a second time in 2006 for contacting the boy and sending him sexually explicit texts, photos, and videos of herself. (Photo: AP Photo/Warren County Sheriff)

Pamela Rogers Turner: Pamela Rogers Turner, a small-town phys-ed teacher and former college basketball player with movie star looks, was busted for repeatedly having sex with a 13-year-old male student, including once in the school gym. Here she is being led from a McMinnville, Tenn. Court, Aug., 2005. She was sentenced to eight years, but told to serve only 9 months (Photo: AP Photo/The Southern Standard)

Debra Lafave: Florida middle school teacher Debra Beasley Lafave, accused of having sex numerous times with a 14-year-old student, including once in a car while his 15-year-old cousin drove, sits at an Ocala, Fla., hearing in 2006. Young, bright, and beautiful - many were baffled that the 23-year-old newlywed threw it all away for her under-age victim. (Photo: AP Photo/St. Petersburg Times)

Debra Lafave was a reading teacher at Greco Middle School in Temple Terrace, Fla., a few miles north of Tampa when, in 2004, she was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a person under 16 years old. Lafave was sentenced to three years house arrest and seven years probation. Many asked would a male teacher who had sex with a female student receive such a light sentence. (Photo: AP Photo/Hillsborough County Jail)